WELCOME!

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by.

I write fantasy for tweens and teens. I blog about books and writing and occasionally travel and homeschooling.

My world of Aluvia series is an upper-middle grade fantasy, well-suited for ages 11-14, though all ages can enjoy it. FAIRY KEEPER, MER-CHARMER and DRAGON REDEEMER each stand-alone but are best read as a series. My fourth book will be releasing in April with CBAY Books, and is called SHORTCUTS.

This is a family-friendly site. Note: There are some spoilers in a few of my book reviews, primarily the ones done for my grad school classes. I do warn readers with a big, "SPOILER!" announcement on the review.

Welcome! I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to leave a comment!

Monday, July 29, 2013

FANTASY: THE SCORPIO RACES, by Maggie Stiefvater

Every
November, people race their water horses in a race called The Scorpio Races, but
these are no ordinary horses.Violent
and unpredictable, the horses kill people and animals every year.One boy, Sean, is the reigning champion of
the races.He has a special ability with
these water horses.Puck (a girl) is an
orphan who signs up to race her land horse in a desperate attempt to keep her
biggest brother from leaving the island, since the winner earns good
money.She’s the first girl to ever race.
Puck is drawn to Sean—and he is drawn to her—but there can be only one winner.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Stiefvater tells the story using alternating points of view.The story is told back and forth from Sean
and Puck’s perspective, first person point of view.As the pace speeds up near the ending, we
jump back and forth into their minds faster and faster.Each time we change our narrator, it’s always
clearly labeled, making it easy for readers to keep straight who is speaking.Their voices are distinct, as are their
motivations.Puck is feisty and
stubborn; Sean is observant, calm and confident in his skills.Both are set-apart from those around them.

The book is set on a fictional island named Thisby that brings to mind
Ireland or Scotland.A man from America arrives, so it
is mostly realistic as far as setting goes, with the addition of the capaill uisce (the water horses) as
magical creatures.Based on Children’s Literature in Action, “The
fantasy genre includes books in which something make-believe or impossible
happens,” which would extend to mythological creatures like capaill uisce.Built like horses, they long for the water
and possess magic enough to entice humans to ride full out into the water with
them, drowning.They are also
carnivorous, and October is their wildest month.However, the capaill uisce is the only true aspect of magic in this book, so it
would be considered a “low fantasy” novel, not “high fantasy,” because it does
not involve “a far departure from the reality of the present day” (Vardell, 206).There is internal consistency throughout the
story of how these water horses work and what is needed to “tame” them, (although
most would say that they are never truly tamed!)

Young men from across the island take a risk and train one of the capaill uisce for the Scorpio Races.The plot heats up as Puck first realizes
she’s got to win the race on November 1stor she’ll lose the house—and her big
brother.Considering that their family lost both
parents to the water horses, she has more fear of them than most.Those are big stakes for an orphaned teen.Sean is the reigning champion, but he doesn’t
race to win.He races because he loves
it and loves his water horse Corr, even though his father died in the races years
before.His mother left when he was a young child, so Sean has lived at the stable where he was taken in by the owner of the
stables.The archetype of the orphaned
child who is the hero of the story is common in fantasy novels, and though it
is not leaned on too heavily here, it does contribute to the storyline.

Sean wants the water horse that his stable manager won’t sell him.Corr is one of the mystical water horses that
most people live in fear of, but Sean “has one foot on land and one foot in the
sea” (212, Stiefvater.) He notices
Puck on her land horse, Dove, against his will.She notices him as well.There is
a natural, strong conflict as their feelings grow towards each other, given
that only one can win.However, the
stakes are raised sky high when Sean finally takes a gamble with his boss by
quitting.His boss reluctantly agrees
that if Sean comes back to work and wins this year, he can buy Corr.If he loses, he can never ask for Corr again. It’s the only thing Sean has ever
wanted…until Puck came along. Now they
both have to win the race in order to have the thing they want most in life…but
they also want each other.On page 328,
Puck says explicitly, “The only thing is, the more I see him and Corr together,
the more I think how unbearable it would be for Sean to lose him.But we can’t both win.”

Stiefvater’s descriptions are vivid and effective.When Puck arrives for the races, she says,
“In the night, I’ve shrunk and everyone else on the island has grown.They’re all nine feet tall and men and I’m
four feet and a child.Dove, too, is a
toy, or possibly a dog as I lead her through the throngs of people” (370). Stiefvater also knows how to build an
atmospheric setting, mood and tone while building tension!

It
takes everything in me not to whimper. The creature is black as peat at
midnight, and its lips are pulled back into a fearsome grin. The ears are long
and wickedly pointed toward each other, less like a horse and more like a
demon. They remind me of shark egg pouches. The nostrils are long and thin to
keep the sea out. Eyes black and slick: a fish’s eyes.It still stinks like the ocean. Like low tide
and things caught on rock. It’s barely a horse.It’s hungry. (230)

There is no way to read this and not feel the wildness of the island, the
danger of the water horses.It makes
Puck’s choice to race her land pony brave to the point of foolishness, perhaps.

The theme of freedom reverberates through the book.The situation of a hired hand who merely
works for a large corporation (in this case, a horse breeder) is addressed in
the unfairness that while the groom may care for the horses, know the horses,
love the horses… the horses are not his.It is the plight that Sean wishes to escape from.Sean wants to be free to buy his water horse
and live by the sea in his father’s house.Puck wants the freedom to ride in the race in order to save her
family. She is told she cannot ride, but Sean insists that she be allowed to. And the question of taming the water horses brings a deep bass note of questioning to anyone who dislikes zoos,
animal water parks, and circuses.The
same theme is seen on the last page, when Sean offers his beloved water horse the
freedom to return to the sea that he loves.These wild beasts are forced to obey through charms, cold iron against
their skin and other forcible measures.It’s disturbing to read sometimes.Sean,
however, doesn’t need those tools with Corr, making him easy to root for.

This book’s pace is on the slow side at first, but builds to a fast and
exciting climax.Teens who love horses
will love the entire book.The hint of
romance will appeal to girls who liked Twilight,
while the fierce female character of Puck will appeal to those who have less
interest in romance.Boys will enjoy
Sean’s quiet, strong character and the racing itself. There are several suddenly violent scenes, to
be mindful of, but they are not as graphic as they could be.It has wide appeal within the YA and MG market.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

"Sean, the
island's foremost horse expert, races Corr to win the money to finally buy the
horse from his boss, Benjamin Malvern. Kate, aka Puck, races her land horse to
save her family home from foreclosure by the same man. Both cannot win, and it
is doubtful that both will survive. While there is plenty of action, conflict,
excitement, and a heart-stopping climax, it is the slowly developing
relationship between Kate and Sean that makes the book remarkable. Though
different, they are both products of the island and have an intense love for
Thisby that is not shared by all of the residents. Stiefvater makes readers
care deeply for them, their desolate island, and even the monstrous water
horses. The author takes great liberties with the Celtic myth, but the result
is marvelous."-School Library Journal, Nov 1, 2011

"Only one can
win the race and many are lucky to even survive, but Puck and Sean learn to
lean on each other to survive the deadliest season on the island they both
love. Fans of Stiefvater's Shiver (Scholastic, 2009/VOYA December 2009) will
fall under her descriptive trance once again in The Scorpio Races as she draws
the reader into Sean and Puck's captivating world of capaill uisce.-" Voice of Youth Advocates, Oct 1, 2011

"Both riders
have deeper personal motives for wanting to win. Filling it with loving
descriptions of wet, wind-tossed Thisby as well as exciting equine action,
Stiefvater has created a thrilling backdrop for the love story that blooms
between Sean and Puck. And in the water horses, based on mostly Celtic legends,
she's created scary yet compelling forces of nature. A book appealing to lovers
of fantasy, horse stories, romance, and action-adventure alike, this seems to
have a shot at being a YA blockbuster."—Booklist, Setp 1, 2011

Michael L. Printz Award Honor, 2012

The
Odyssey Honor Award 2012 for Best Audio Production

Los
Angeles Times Book Times Award Finalist, 2012

ALA
Notable Books for Children, 2012

The
New York Times Notable Children’s' Books of 2011

Publishers
Weekly Best Children's Books of 2011

Amazon's Best Books for Teens 2011

The audio
book version also received positive reviews.

5.
CONNECTIONS

Read Misty of Chincatigue and
compare/contrast the paranormal/magical element of the water horses compared to
taming wild—but non-magical- horses.

Read other books by Stiefvater for an author study:Shiver
trilogy, The Raven Boys, Books of Fairie series.

Research the
mythology of the Irish myth of capall
uisge (note that she uses a different spelling than the actual Irish myth
spelling), or the Scottish version, each
uisge (which is spelled differently yet again).Compare and contrast what changes she made
(which are significant).

Have
students create book trailers for it.

Illustrate a
scene from the novel.

6.PERSONAL REACTIONS

I read this
book in a DAY.And it’s not small, at
400 pages.It starts a little slow, but
I loved the measured unfolding of the relationship between Puck and Sean.I also appreciated the tension and the
masterful way the author laid out the stakes for each character, the timing of
which only reinforced the overall tension of the storyline until the dramatic
finish.I do think the final race could
have been extended further, but otherwise, it was fantastic.